The Bust
by RevvEmUp
Summary: Second installation of 5E. After escorting Dagger, the crew escorts a mudcrab merchant working for the East Empire Company to Morrowind to meet his family, but discover a hidden skooma operation on an island off the coast of New Vvardenfell.


The Northern Cardinal II arrives at the town of New Sadrith Mora; the nearest possible location of the mudcrab's family. The Dragonborn and his First Mate, clad in chitin armour, escorts the mudcrab to a nature reserve on a small island off the coast. The mudcrab meets his large family of mudcrabs and waves goodbye to the Dragonborn. "That was easy. All we had to do was walk with a mudcrab carrying more money than in our salaries. What now?" the First Mate asked. The Dragonborn silently shrugs his shoulders.

"What was that?" sensed the First Mate. The Dragonborn pushes the First Mate behind some rocks and crouches down after. Khajiit from a nearby fort are lifting crates with the words "Moonsugar" burned on them; an ingredient for Tamriel's most infamous drug: Skooma. "We've been tracking down skooma operations for months and they've been here this entire time!" whispered the First Mate. "These guysh aren't dealers. They jush supply ingrediensh for them." said the mudcrab merchant, who sneaked up behind the Dragonborn.

"I thought you were with your family." the First Mate said. "Eh, I thought you guys needed some help when I saw some of them cat-people with guns walk by." the mudcrab said. "Hands up! Never should have come here!" exclaimed one of the two Khajiit with assault rifles who snuck up behind them. "You couldn't have mentioned it sooner?" the First Mate asked sarcastically. The two Khajiit cover The Dragonborn's mouth with duct tape and escorts them to a nearby white luxury yacht.

The two Khajiit lead the three to the captain on the bridge, Sarthis Idren, an ancient Dunmer skooma crime lord who lengthened his lifespan with cybernetic augmentation below a black suit-and-tie. "Well, well… if it isn't the Dragonborn. You thought that I was dead from the history books didn't you? Doesn't matter, once you're ransomed I can get ahead with manufacturing once more." Sarthis threatened. "And who's this? It's the Mudcrab Merchant. You used to be my favourite customer, now you're just another one of those fatcats over at East Empire, sitting comfortably in wealth!" Sarthis accused angrily. "My job was simple: buy shuff from poor saps then sell them to other poor saps! It hasn't changed ever since I got the job!" exclaimed the mudcrab. "It is weird that boss is talking to a mudcrab, no?" one of the Khajiit asked to another.

"You two, take them to the brig!" Sarthis commanded the two Khajiit. They are escorted to the brig; extra sleeping quarters modified with reinforced walls and a thick metal door. When they entered the three find the rest of the Northern Cardinal II crew inside, with their hands locked in enchanted chains. "I'm sorry, sera. We couldn't beat them. They took over the ship and stowed their extra cargo inside." explained a Dunmer woman wearing black body armour and golden facepaint. "Only Marcus managed to escape along with the robots." an elderly Nord man added.

"Hey didn't you say Sarthis was supplying ingredients, not manufacturing skooma?" asked the First Mate to the mudcrab. "The cats were shupplying the ingredients. They're for Sarthish. He probably hired some as bodyguards and workers." explained the mudcrab. "So what do you suppose we do now, captain?" the elderly Nord asked the Dragonborn sarcastically. "I bet Marcus is gonna get a Dwemer centurion and bust us outta here." joked a young Nord with a tattoo on his right cheek. Suddenly a huge golden hammer punches a hole through the hull.

The Imperial mage, known as Marcus, climbs into the ship and uses spider animunculi to cut the chains off the crew's wrists. "I'm sorry I took so long. I needed to find the nearest Dwemer engineer. So I found one at Nchurdamz and he let me borrow this guy." explained Marcus as he picked up a spider animunculus. The Khajiit guards open the brig door and are immediately shot by Marcus's pistol. They escape through the door while Marcus climbs onto the Dwemer centurion's hammer and moves away. The rest of the crew boards the Northern Cardinal II as the rest of the Khajiit are loading the ship.

The crew prepares to attack the Khajiit, but Marcus and the animunculi also board the ship and start attacking the workers with their built-in dart guns. The rest of the Northern Cardinal II crew starts throwing the crates of moonsugar overboard and nightshade plants as the Khajiit flee. "Where's the skooma?" the Dunmer woman wondered. The luxury yacht passes by; the hole covered by an iron sheet, as Sarthis waves at them with a skooma bottle in his hand. The crew tries to hit the yacht with the crates and the nightshade plants with no success.

Sarthis manages to escape but the Dunmer woman gives the Dragonborn a pair of combat boots. He puts them on, jumps off the ship and lands on the water as if it was solid matter. He sprints as fast as he can in the direction of the yacht and when he got near to the yacht he shouts "Wuld Nah Kest!" and suddenly runs with the speed of the wind and jumps onto the deck of the yacht. Sadris pulled out an Elven revolver and shoots the Dragonborn, but the bullet bounces off the chest piece leaving no scratches. The Dragonborn walks over to Sarthis, grabs him by the neck and lifted him up, preparing to punch him.

Sarthis produces an Elven dagger from his pocket then stabs The Dragonborn at a weak spot in his armour's abdomen. Sarthis lands on his feet as The Dragonborn collapsed. When Sarthis was about to pull the trigger, a bonemold arrow flew through his forehead and collapsed dead as a Dunmer man in bonemold armour emerges from behind a column. He walks over to the unconscious Dragonborn and heals him with a restore health spell. The Dragonborn wakes up, first seeing his blurry crew staring at him, and the mysterious Dunmer nowhere in sight.

THE END


End file.
